Karl Fostvedt wants to see X Games add Real Ski Street. Do you?

Karl Fostvedt made waves in 2012 when he navigated a seamless transition from filming with Toy Soldier Productions to Poor Boyz Productions, garnering the accolades that went with the second-to-last segment in PBP’s WE. To possibly top that in 2013, he spent almost a month shooting street features with PBP in Detroit (which will also be run as a feature story in Freeskier’s upcoming October issue, so, like, subscribe!) as well as filming for the PBP park segment and with 4bi9 for their upcoming release, All Damn Day. Not content to while away his summer skiing at camps or sitting on the deck sipping drinks, Fostvedt picked up a summer job in PBP’s southern California office.

Karl Fostvedt puts safety first while working during the Freeskier and Poor Boyz shoot in Detroit, MI. January 2013. Photo: Nate Abbott

Nate Abbott: Hey Karl, so you’ve moved to California for the summer to work with PBP. What’s your official job title and what are you doing on a day-to-day basis?

Karl Fostvedt: My official title is “intern.” My project for the summer is to create a 20 to 30 minute “rider’s cut” of this year’s footage. It’s a really fun project because I get to sort through everyone’s shots. It’s a chance for us to showcase all of our action footage from the year, so expect to see some shots that don’t make the feature film, as well as every rider’s bangers. So far, I’ve started to edit segments for Pep Fujas, Sean Pettit, Vincent Gagnier and Khai Krepela.

Are you getting to spend some time surfing, too?

Best perk of working with Poor Boyz! I just got back from a three-week trip to Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Mexico. I’m addicted. Surfing is the best way to spend the offseason. I’ll be surfing every summer ‘til the day I die.

What else you got planned for the summer? Anything away from the ski world?

My winter started with an extraordinary trip to Detroit where I filmed a segment for PBP with Khai Krepela and Max Morello. Poor Boyz wanted to try something different this year. With the help of filmers Cody Carter, Jasper Newton and Jonny Durst we created a very unique urban segment. Detroit was a grueling trip, but when all was said and done, it was a great success for our crew.

Then I just filmed with 4bi9 the rest of the year (check out the teaser here). Mike McLeod, Andrew Napier, AJ Dakoulas and Tom “Big TUNA” Arnell really stepped it up this year on the production side of things. Salt Lake got a ton of snow in January and, thanks to a smoggy inversion, the snow stuck around for a while. We were hitting features in the city for over a month straight. We also took a couple trips out to Mt. Baker with Tim McChesney, John Ware and Dale Talkington. My good friend (and fellow charger) Wiley Chubb put all seven of us up in his crib in Bellingham (Thanks Wiley!) and showed us some sick zones around Baker. Things really couldn’t have gone much better.

Karl’s new office and new toys. Photo: Jonny Durst

Street skiing is a big part of how you’ve made your name in the industry. Are you content with just being on the grind filming video parts with 4bi9 and PBP or do you look at the success of Real Ski Backcountry and Real Snow in the X Games and aspire to push into that competitive frame?

I’m a big fan of X Games Real Snow and Real Snow Backcountry. It’s really cool to see video contests get big exposure, because it drives progression. In its first year, Real Ski Backcountry emerged onto the scene with a bang. All of the entries were really sick, and it was awesome to see so much sick content so early in the season. I would love to see Real Ski Street brought on because it would be a huge opportunity for street skiers. We’re stepping to drops and gaps that are bigger and gnarlier than even some of the best snowboarders are hitting, and it’s time that we got a chance to showcase our efforts on a platform like ESPN.

What do you think a Real Ski Street contest would add to the sport of skiing?

Progression. Exposure. Recognition. Entertainment. Insanity. There is a lot more room for progression in video contests because the venue is the entire world. You can go wherever you want to film an entry for a contest like that. I think that’s cool because you build your own features, and that accentuates individual skiers’ style. There’s no one building a slopestyle course for you, you’re building your own in the streets. You can go wherever you want and hit whatever you want. Everyone is going to approach a zone differently, and the way you approach and build a feature is half of the fun.

A burly drop-to-down rail in Westminster, CO, also during filming for WE. Photo: Nate Abbott

Real Ski Street would put more pressure on you to basically film an entire extra video part, and do that under the intensity of such a big stage. Is that worth it?

Filming multiple video parts is a big challenge. Sometimes things go really well and sometimes they don’t. Everyone is stepping to such gnarly features these days that it’s almost impossible to get through the season without an injury. You have to know when you got it and when you don’t. Real Ski Street would be filmed early in the season, so you gotta be very calculated about how hard you push it so you don’t cut your season short. With that being said, the intensity that Real Ski Street will bring to the game is immense. It’s an event that’s going to push everyone to their limits.

I’m sure you’re proud of the hard work you did last winter, but who else are you looking forward to seeing segments from when they’re released this summer or fall?

I saw a rough version of JP’s urban segment for the new Sherpas film, and all I can say is wow. That guy is the f#ckin’ man! I also can’t wait to see the new Sweetgrass film Valhalla. Their last film Solitaire was one of the best ski films I’ve seen in a while. Everyone should check that out.

Gotta give you room to give some credit to the people who support you, who makes it all possible?

Big thank you going out to all my friends, family and sponsors that had my back this year. Be sure to check out all of our hard work in this fall’s PBP and 4bi9 offerings. Mahalo.

About the Author

Nate Abbott is a veteran photographer based in New York City. He spends winters chasing skiers and snow around the world. Nate is a Senior Contributor with FREESKIER. You can see his work at
Nate Abbott.com.